Conventional wisdom and the folks in Vegas are predicting a Carolina-New England Super Bowl. I wouldn’t have a huge issue with that – the Patriots were the league’s best team for the first three-quarters of the season before injuries set them back a bit. The Panthers have proven that even with a soft schedule, they are legit.
Truth be told, though, I’d prefer to see a couple different story lines play out. Peyton Manning is a shell of the QB he used to be, but I do have a soft spot for seeing legends go out on top. I’d also like to see guys like Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald rewarded for their years of toil on mostly bad to average teams.
What is your preferred match-up? Vote and then tell us why below.
Well, that went bad in a hurry. Looking at nothing but the scores, it would appear I at least came close to having a winning week, but in reality that’s not true. Kansas City’s five minute drive while down two scores at the end of the Patriots game ensured I had no chance at covering that spread. The Seahawks money line bet only missed by a TD, but Seattle was down 31 at half – there was no point after the first 15 minutes where I felt I would win that one.
Even my draw – the over/under push on the Steelers/Broncos game – did nothing more than show how freakishly good the NFL is at setting point spreads and over/under numbers.
So after a couple good weeks put me ahead for the year, I’m now substantially down again – though still not as bad as Tony, who remains at least temporarily in pretend hiding for his substantially brutal results during the season.
The Wild Card round went much as I expected, with five and six seeds in both conferences proving to be superior to the third- and fourth-seeded division winners.
That meant for a solid round of picks. It didn’t translate to bets, however, as the point spreads in Vegas proved to be as difficult to manipulate as ever.
I did go 2-2, hitting two bets on over/under numbers. They’ve come in handy all season – I haven’t been able to get spreads right, but the numbers have been slightly easier.
So here’s where I stand (Tony, as you may recall, is in hiding, trying to avoid more hypothetical broken bones over losing twice his allotted bankroll for the season).
Starting $$
Wild card record
Wild card $$
Current $$
Andy
$11,568
2-2
– $96
$11,472
The games get a bit tougher this week. I doubt I go undefeated in picks. Bets … who the hell knows. But here goes: (more…)
In our Hall of Fame prediction post a few months back, Tony picked Tony Dungy as one of his five enshrinees for the class of 2016, citing the momentum the former Bucs and Colts coach has garnered in recent years.
But that doesn’t mean Dungy SHOULD be the next coach to make the Hall.
I like Dungy “the man” more than I like Jimmy Johnson “the man.” Johnson’s got a huge ego, which ultimately was part of the reason his tenure in Dallas was so short – it couldn’t co-exist with the equally massive ego of owner Jerry Jones. And those Cowboys teams he coached were a smug, arrogant bunch in a lot of ways – not that they didn’t deserve to be proud of their accomplishments. That was a seriously great team.
Tony fell into an even deeper hole when his two big bets didn’t hit last week, so he’s gone into pretend hiding for the offseason as he attempts to avoid having his legs broken by his hypothetical guy.
His rough season came to an end with a loss of more than $20,000.
My bets weren’t exactly stellar throughout the year – more on this in a later post – but a solid finish to the season put me up a little over $1,000 for the season.
With Tony suddenly MIA, I’ll be going solo on the bets throughout the playoffs. Here’s where we stand right now.
Last week
Last week $
Overall
Overall $
Bankroll
Andy
3-1
+ $2,809
32-35-1
+ $2,809
$11,568
Tony
2-2
– $6,548
29-38-1
– $27,343
– $17,343
There are four really interesting games on slate for this weekend. Here’s how I see them playing out:
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